Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I've been going out semi-sporadically with some consistency to "lead" the NEMBA Burlington Landlocked Ride (Thursdays, 6PM Estabrook School, Bedford). The past couple rides have actually been lead by Mike Rowell, a supah-fast local. He's fast anywhere, but this stuff is his backyard, and no matter how hard you fight, he will win. You think you're fast? Come out and play with Mike. You a 'crosser who wants to get some intensity with a bunch of cornering practice thrown in (before you flat, get devoured by mosquitoes, and have to walk home) come out and play with Mike.

Of course there are several other-paced rides, including a women's ride that go off at the same-ish time. So even if you don't want to come out and play with Mike on the, as Adam Glick calls it: "Left For Dead Ride," come out and play nice with others.

I'll be riding the Niner One 9 from South Boston to Burlington at about 4:30 Thursday night, right up Mass Ave. If you're in Somerville, Cambridge, or Arlington, hop on the crazy, 15mph, green train.

Monday, June 20, 2011

On Saturday night I was lucky enough to be part of a stealth, little Pivot Cycles demo up at Harold Parker put on by Pivot dealer, JRA Cycles. The bike I rode was the above-pictured Firebird, a 170mm (6.7") travel bike meant more for hucking at highland Mt. than plowing through the flatland rock gardens of HP. But hey, it was still wicked fun. Three of us were on the Firebird, the rest were on 429s or Mach 5.7s. All the riders there were happy with whatever they rode.

Out of all the 6" plus bikes I've ridden, I liked the Firebird the best, by far. The DW Link is awesome. It takes awhile for an XC douche like myself to get used to a bike like that, but once I got it...

I was just lifting the front end and bee-lining through rock gardens like Harold Parker was a huge luge track, which it it's really not. It's a bumpy, bony, mess. Me, Tom Greene, and Aaron from JRA were carving through rocky corners and blasting through root fields like it was nothin'. Always fun to play tag with riders like those guys.

If you want to demo a Pivot too, and you know you do, you can do so at the Middlesex Fells this Wednesday between 3-7PM at the Flynn Rink. If I were free, I would be all over that Firebird again like a vegan on a banh mi sandwich.

Josh from Pivot is the man. He drives around the country ceaselessly, hooking people up with sweet bikes to ride. He was hooking us up on his day off. The man.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

I'm having a bit of a bicycle yard sale today and tomorrow in Somerville. The featured items are definitely the ones pictured here — the Superfly Singlespeed and the Sawyer. The Superfly is new, out of the box. It's a 19". The Sawyer is also a 19" but it is lightly used. The thing can be run single, geared, even belt drive. I'm asking $1500 for the Superfly and $550 for the Sawyer. The Sawyer comes with a headset and carbon seatpost. The Superfly comes as pictured.

I'll be posting more stuff as the day progresses, but not here. Check out all the ACTION on Facebook and Twitter.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

My internetting time is meager these days, so I'll have to make this quick and typo-ridden.

It was my birthday the other day, I think I turned 26...but I'm not really sure. Not too good with numbers. I hid my birthday info on Facebook because, as I see it, there is nothing more meaningless than a Facebook birthday wish. I went to dinner with the family at Washington Square Tavern. The owner, Gerry Finnegan is a small, very solid planetoid around which fun gravitates. The moons that orbit around this planetoid, which I will call "Gerranus," are named "Beer" and "Bikes." During our dinner, Gerry tried to convince me to go ride a trail called "G-Spot," up in the north shore of Massachusetts (ya, we got a north shore too). I told him I only had my Niner One 9, and that it wasn't the appropriate bike for those trails. "I'll get ya a bike!" he said. And five minutes of texting later, he had. "I got ya a Santa Cruz Nomad, yer gonna love it!"

But late Saturday night I realized that I had no way to get there other than getting up butt-ass early and getting on a train to Beverly, then riding ten miles from the train to the trailhead...on a single speed with trail gearing. I used to ride 100 milers. Now I'm just a fat, lazy, fuck. I started texting with Gerry..."I'll get ya ride!" he texted. And he did. His buddy Rob showed up at my door the next morning at 9AM in this...

While Rob was driving me to G-Spot, Gerry was driving back from Ashland with "my" bike. The crazy bastard had gotten up before anyone in our group to go get the bike from Johhny "Cougs." I had thought about bailing on this ride...that would have been a bad idea. Gerry had gone all out to make sure I got there and that I had...

The right equipment for the job.

Francois was there. He is a bad man on the bike. Apparently he's a bad man behind the wheel too. Or horribly inept.

After the ride we were debating where to go for a beer. It was a tight race between Hooters and Charlie's Kitchen beer garden in Harvard Square. Charlie's won out. Not exactly near Manchester By The Sea (If it were they'd have to change the name of the town to "Manchester By The Charlie's Beer Garden") but a great place to be on a Sunday afternoon. Gerry's wife showed up with their dog Bruno, an English Bull Dog puppy. Basically the canine equivalent of Gerry. Bruno is very popular with the ladies...

So much so that Gerry's considering starting a puppy rental service for single men.

Watch out, hatchet chop segue!

I've been leading some rides for NEMBA out at Burlington Landlocked Forest. I'm doing one this Thursday, and there's a possibility that I will be riding out there, hitting stuff along the way. Like telephone poles. No silly, more like hidden singletrack. Details to follow. Or not.

About Big Bikes

I am a Blogger/Writer/Video-hack guy for hire. I write product reviews and other weirdness for BikeRumor. I cover races and do interviews for Cyclingdirt. I come over here to talk weird and curse a lot.